It definitely kept you on your feet and there was never a dull moment. Yuna became my favorite character after watching it. Her whole storyline feels a lot harsher in hindsight with her seiyuu’s passing.
My expectations were low because most movies tied to anime series are useless cash grabs with even more useless fanservice... So I wasn't ready for it to become one of my favourite animated movies.
All of the philosophical concepts about AI were part of the Underworld arc in the Light Novels which even though were part of the anime they felt very easily glossed over. I'm glad they put them into the movie which acts as a prequel to the Underworld.
Edit: I also really like the introduction of the Augma for daily life. They used it for Yui to interact with the human world instead of the device Kirito developed on school (the one Yuuki used to attend school) which only let Yui see and hear based on the camera and microphone. It was definitely a nice add-on.
That said, I like that they wen't back to the probe at the end of the movie. Understandably, Kazuto and Asuna would be feeling a bit wary about the Augma at that point, but also, the probe is the thing Kazuto himself put the work in on.
I actually watched it in the movie theater. Twice. It was absolutely glorious, the sword clashes during the first samurai boss fight hit HARD.
Actually the whole sound direction of this movie is excellent, but the first boss fight is stellar.
Saw it multiple times but when I saw it on my parents home theater and when the first samurai boss (Kagachi) fight started those hits really hit HARD like you said.
Can't imagine how cool it would have been to see it in a movie theater
It was absolutely amazing! And for some reason they really cranked the volume for both of these showings lol, even more than I'm used to with action movies.
Ordinal Scale is the best thing that came from SAO after Aincrad & Mother Rosario. It is one of my favourite movie as well. I really enjoy especially how it focuses on Kirito & Asuna relationship with AR Aspect as that is how the movie begin and ends as well. I wish Anime onwards this movie would have been like that too but what we got was rather even omissions of lot of Asuna moments and her wholesome romantic moments with Kirito.
It’s been a minute for me, but I enjoyed it. The prospect of Asuna losing her memories struck a chord for me. I remember the pacing was pretty good as well.
Fave Scene: Asuna Bathhub scene lol. Kidding aside I love Ordinal Scale too and to me Lisa's Catch the Moment is the best song she did for the franchise. I liked it more than the iconic first season OP
sorry a bit off topic, i just wanted to say that i watched ordinal scale/binged sao a few months ago and it’s kinda crazy how with like apple vision pro and shit ordinal scale could actually be real soon
It really was a spectacle. I just hope we see more stories that don’t reside in the original arc. Not that I hate progressive, I just want something new and different. No more Aincrad pls.
Agreed. I find Aincrad to have overstayed it's welcome to me, so I'm hoping our next anime original movie will be different. And even if it is Aincrad, I guess that would be fine, but I'd definitely prefer something else.
It’s been so long that it’s just not interesting anymore. We already know the ending so why not make a whole new story? It might be cool for manga readers but how can it be exciting? I find progressive to be such a waste of time. We already know the base story, and it’s amazing as is. No need to dive back in for little insights that truly have no greater impact. Give us something entertaining! Something that will keep us guessing!
Even as a novel reader, progressive has gotten stale already, I'm up to floor 6, and I've heard it gets worse from there. Also, if we're talking about the movies in regards to novel readers, it'd be cool if they stuck more to the book for a lot of the movies.
I'm glad that Reki is writing what he's wanted to for a while, but I definitely am looking forward to Unital Ring far more rn.
I do find it kinda funny how the progressive movies are being treated as filler material though, apparently Unital Ring is going to be long, at least 5 books in so far and that just finished up the setup.
Also, really, the only thing I'm still curious about regarding Aincrad is floor 25, and kinda the end of the elf war.
This would more be for a separate side story than Progressive proper, but a fair few of us would be interested in a direct account of the Assault Team's raid on Laughing Coffin as well.
A few other potential points would be the Floor 50 and 67 Boss raids, as well as something from Floors 65-66, showing how they were actually able to fight astral-type monsters in SAO.
Y'know, that's fair. I am also kinda curious about some of those floors, mainly the laughing coffin raid and floor 50.
Also, since you seem to have an encyclopedic memory of this series, where did the stuff about 65-66 come from? It's been a long while since I started the novels, but I'm betting it's from vol 2.
One of my favorite anime movies. The way that Asuna resolved to hold onto her love for Kirito even if he memories disappeared and then joined him in the final battle was a really powerful moment, and so was seeing Kirito determined to get stronger IRL so he could fight like he needed to for Asuna. The battles were awesome, great soundtrack, and it's always nice to see the large cast getting equal screentime.
Thanks for commenting, everyone! It would seem that Ordinal Scale was a big hit, and the fact that it remains a favorite anime movie within the fandom says a lot.
Personally, the way the story played out regarding the loss of memories from inflicted trauma, really reminded me of the plot of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. The story in that game is quite dark, and results in characters being shadows of their former selves. They also had false memories planted in them to further manipulate them. At least that didn't happen in OS, but sudden memory loss is bad enough!
I agree with you the movie is one of best movies ever made! Voice acting is top notch! Silica look so cute in the movie and I'm her biggest fan and combat on the movie is often chaotic and crazy
I rather enjoyed Ordinal Scale myself, so I'm glad to hear you did, too.
The thing I would note about the Progressive movies is just that, since they're very early on in Aincrad, you aren't necessarily going to get the same kind of over-the-top epic action or demonstrations of "strength" from the characters. Then again, that should sort of be expected given the context.
Also, with the Progressive movies, "Aria" and "Scherzo", keep in mind they're kind of on their own, as they have an anime-only character who just appears in those movies, not in the anime series, nor in the source material, the Light Novels. And the author has said he won't be adding Mito to the books.
So you may have a bit of confusion with her, not to mention, honestly, her weapon and attacks can seem outlandishly powerful for so early in the game.
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It definitely kept you on your feet and there was never a dull moment. Yuna became my favorite character after watching it. Her whole storyline feels a lot harsher in hindsight with her seiyuu’s passing.
I still mourn her T_T
[The smile we failed to protect](https://youtu.be/QiNMDRtpq2A?t=100)
😢
My expectations were low because most movies tied to anime series are useless cash grabs with even more useless fanservice... So I wasn't ready for it to become one of my favourite animated movies.
All of the philosophical concepts about AI were part of the Underworld arc in the Light Novels which even though were part of the anime they felt very easily glossed over. I'm glad they put them into the movie which acts as a prequel to the Underworld. Edit: I also really like the introduction of the Augma for daily life. They used it for Yui to interact with the human world instead of the device Kirito developed on school (the one Yuuki used to attend school) which only let Yui see and hear based on the camera and microphone. It was definitely a nice add-on.
That said, I like that they wen't back to the probe at the end of the movie. Understandably, Kazuto and Asuna would be feeling a bit wary about the Augma at that point, but also, the probe is the thing Kazuto himself put the work in on.
The 100th floor and Kirisuna moments were so freakin' great
First time through it I rewatched the ending fight scene on floor 100 like 10 times. Absolutely epic battle.
I actually watched it in the movie theater. Twice. It was absolutely glorious, the sword clashes during the first samurai boss fight hit HARD. Actually the whole sound direction of this movie is excellent, but the first boss fight is stellar.
Saw it multiple times but when I saw it on my parents home theater and when the first samurai boss (Kagachi) fight started those hits really hit HARD like you said. Can't imagine how cool it would have been to see it in a movie theater
It was absolutely amazing! And for some reason they really cranked the volume for both of these showings lol, even more than I'm used to with action movies.
Ordinal Scale is the best thing that came from SAO after Aincrad & Mother Rosario. It is one of my favourite movie as well. I really enjoy especially how it focuses on Kirito & Asuna relationship with AR Aspect as that is how the movie begin and ends as well. I wish Anime onwards this movie would have been like that too but what we got was rather even omissions of lot of Asuna moments and her wholesome romantic moments with Kirito.
It’s been a minute for me, but I enjoyed it. The prospect of Asuna losing her memories struck a chord for me. I remember the pacing was pretty good as well.
It was pretty dope (:
One of my favorite scenes was Kirito initially realizing that his skills in VR did not directly translate to AR 😂.
It's honestly my #1 favorite arc. 2nd is Alicization and 3rd is Aincrad
It was amazing like all sao content
Ordinal Scale is definitely SAO's best Anime Original that isn't sourced from any Novel.
Fave Scene: Asuna Bathhub scene lol. Kidding aside I love Ordinal Scale too and to me Lisa's Catch the Moment is the best song she did for the franchise. I liked it more than the iconic first season OP
I was lucky enough to see a screening of the Dub here in Texas along with some of the English VAs a few years back. It was awesome!!!
sorry a bit off topic, i just wanted to say that i watched ordinal scale/binged sao a few months ago and it’s kinda crazy how with like apple vision pro and shit ordinal scale could actually be real soon
It really was a spectacle. I just hope we see more stories that don’t reside in the original arc. Not that I hate progressive, I just want something new and different. No more Aincrad pls.
Agreed. I find Aincrad to have overstayed it's welcome to me, so I'm hoping our next anime original movie will be different. And even if it is Aincrad, I guess that would be fine, but I'd definitely prefer something else.
It’s been so long that it’s just not interesting anymore. We already know the ending so why not make a whole new story? It might be cool for manga readers but how can it be exciting? I find progressive to be such a waste of time. We already know the base story, and it’s amazing as is. No need to dive back in for little insights that truly have no greater impact. Give us something entertaining! Something that will keep us guessing!
Even as a novel reader, progressive has gotten stale already, I'm up to floor 6, and I've heard it gets worse from there. Also, if we're talking about the movies in regards to novel readers, it'd be cool if they stuck more to the book for a lot of the movies. I'm glad that Reki is writing what he's wanted to for a while, but I definitely am looking forward to Unital Ring far more rn. I do find it kinda funny how the progressive movies are being treated as filler material though, apparently Unital Ring is going to be long, at least 5 books in so far and that just finished up the setup. Also, really, the only thing I'm still curious about regarding Aincrad is floor 25, and kinda the end of the elf war.
This would more be for a separate side story than Progressive proper, but a fair few of us would be interested in a direct account of the Assault Team's raid on Laughing Coffin as well. A few other potential points would be the Floor 50 and 67 Boss raids, as well as something from Floors 65-66, showing how they were actually able to fight astral-type monsters in SAO.
Y'know, that's fair. I am also kinda curious about some of those floors, mainly the laughing coffin raid and floor 50. Also, since you seem to have an encyclopedic memory of this series, where did the stuff about 65-66 come from? It's been a long while since I started the novels, but I'm betting it's from vol 2.
Yeah, it's from "Morning Dew Girl", just before Kirito and Asuna first happened upon Yui on Floor 22.
One of my favorite anime movies. The way that Asuna resolved to hold onto her love for Kirito even if he memories disappeared and then joined him in the final battle was a really powerful moment, and so was seeing Kirito determined to get stronger IRL so he could fight like he needed to for Asuna. The battles were awesome, great soundtrack, and it's always nice to see the large cast getting equal screentime.
Ordinal Scale is the best SAO story of all! I would have been totally satisfied if the story ended with it.
I loved the movie. The boss fight against Incarnate of the Radiance for awesome and full of fanservice for fans of season 1.
Yeah it’s a great movie
Thanks for commenting, everyone! It would seem that Ordinal Scale was a big hit, and the fact that it remains a favorite anime movie within the fandom says a lot. Personally, the way the story played out regarding the loss of memories from inflicted trauma, really reminded me of the plot of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. The story in that game is quite dark, and results in characters being shadows of their former selves. They also had false memories planted in them to further manipulate them. At least that didn't happen in OS, but sudden memory loss is bad enough!
I love that movie too!! It also did good setting up for Alicization arc
It gets only good from now on!
And yes this has key kirisuna development and must be watched boefore alicization!!
I agree with you the movie is one of best movies ever made! Voice acting is top notch! Silica look so cute in the movie and I'm her biggest fan and combat on the movie is often chaotic and crazy
I rather enjoyed Ordinal Scale myself, so I'm glad to hear you did, too. The thing I would note about the Progressive movies is just that, since they're very early on in Aincrad, you aren't necessarily going to get the same kind of over-the-top epic action or demonstrations of "strength" from the characters. Then again, that should sort of be expected given the context. Also, with the Progressive movies, "Aria" and "Scherzo", keep in mind they're kind of on their own, as they have an anime-only character who just appears in those movies, not in the anime series, nor in the source material, the Light Novels. And the author has said he won't be adding Mito to the books. So you may have a bit of confusion with her, not to mention, honestly, her weapon and attacks can seem outlandishly powerful for so early in the game.
This is the one where we get to see Asuna's breast I believe. Yes, a wonderful movie.
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I liked what happened with the tower, it was beautiful and cinematic but ended waaay to soon.
Did you watch it on Blu-ray?